Abstract: By examining the historical period from 1870-1920, this presentation will explore why most Chinese women were excluded from immigrating to the United States because they were assumed to be prostitutes while many Japanese women were allowed to immigrate as picture brides. Lee argues that the U.S. did not pass the Page Law of 1875 and the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 or issue the Gentlemen’s Agreement in 1907 for geopolitical reasons alone, as some scholars have argued. Using archival evidence, she contends that attempts to resolve the competing logics in “settling the west,” which called for cheap labor and the permanent settlement of families on the West Coast, explain why the United States responded to the immigration of Chinese and Japanese women differently. These discrepant responses were a product of geopolitics, economic conditions, and class relations in the U.S, along with state and national fears over miscegenation and desires to maintain the imputed racial purity of a “white” national identity. In turn, U.S. immigration laws and policies helped to determine permanent settlement of immigrant communities and the racial and gendered character of the nation. This presentation suggests that nation-building is not simply the “imagining” of a community but is instead a negotiated process involving geopolitics, political economy, and cultural meanings of gender, race, and ethnicity.

Abstract: It is frequently acknowledged that the notion of ‘race’ is a socio-political construct that requires constant refurbishment. However, the process and consequences of racialization are less carefully explored. By examining the ideology about nationhood and colonial policies of the Japanese state in relation to Koreans, I will attempt to demonstrate why and how the Japanese state racialized its population. By so doing, I will argue that the state is deeply involved in racialization by fabricating and authorizing ‘differences’ and ‘similarities’ between the dominant and minority groups.

Introduction: In 2001, UNHCR’s Evaluation and Policy Analysis Unit (EPAU) embarked upon a major study of protracted refugee situations, with funding provided by the US State Department’s Bureau for Population, Refugees and Migration. Since that time, the notion of protracted refugee situations has become an increasingly familiar feature of the discourse on international refugee issues, especially in the African context.

Hitherto, however, a general analysis of this important humanitarian issue has been lacking. The current paper, which provides a synthesis of findings from the case studies and literature review undertaken by EPAU over the past two years, is intended to fill that gap.

Gil Loescher, The International Institute for Strategic Studies – London

Introduction: As military and diplomatic plans develop for a US-led attack against Iraq, there has been little public discussion about the possibility of a mass exodus of Iraqi refugees as a consequence of this conflict. Nor has there been any consideration given to the implications of a refugee crisis on the security and stability of Iraq’s immediate neighbors in the Middle East. This is surprising, because for the last decade or more there have been massive cross-border flows of Iraqi refugees to neighboring states, creating regional instability and imposing social and economic strains on host countries. Iraqi nationals have also been among the highest number of asylum seekers in Europe. There is also surprisingly little public discussion of the current state of preparedness for a humanitarian crisis in Iraq. Yet, as past humanitarian crises clearly demonstrate, early planning for the uncertainties of military action, especially a refugee crisis, is essential.

It is impossible to predict with any degree of certainty that there will be a new Iraqi refugee crisis as a consequence of a possible war. The exact extent of any refugee problem will ultimately be determined by the manner and duration of a military campaign and the extent to which it might produce internal political upheavals in Iraq both during and after the conflict. While these risks are hard to quantify at this stage, what is clear is that the mechanisms and resources needed to respond to worst-case scenarios are not yet in place and the lack of coordination and contingency planning between the military and international and nongovernmental agencies to date is a cause for great alarm. In addition, Iraq’s neighbors, many of whom already host tens, If not hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees, are loath to accept greater numbers. In the event of war, the responsibility for dealing with refugees and the internally displaced is likely to fall increasingly on international aid agencies that are hamstrung by resource shortages, have limited or no experience in the region, and have only limited ability to operate in areas that may be subject to military action and chemical or biological weapons.

Abstract: It is widely assumed that the international protection of refugees and displaced persons can be best understood by focusing on the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), along with the hard and soft law or international regime associated with that office. It is not widely appreciated how much refugee law in its broad formulation overlaps with international humanitarian law and the associated traditions of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (also called the International Red Cross). It is the purpose of this essay to highlight this overlap and to discuss the contributions of the Red Cross network to refugee protection. The International Red Cross is not a tightly integrated network, and parts of that loose system of actors have long competed inter se concerning refugees and other matters. The lead Red Cross actor in conflict situations, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), has often had better relations with the UNHCR than with various members of the Red Cross family. But recent developments suggest a clarification of divisions of labor within the International Red Cross that hold out the promise of improved coordination and effectiveness. This in turn suggests that the UNHCR may find it has better organized partners in trying to protect refugees and displaced persons, although problems may remain on the Red Cross side.

Abstract: This study begins with the observation that while we have a reasonable understanding of the circumstances that lead countries to produce forced migration flows, scholars have yet to investigate the circumstances the lead some countries to produce a large number of internally displaced persons and relatively few refugees (or asylum-seekers) as opposed to a large number or refugees and relatively few internally displaced persons. The study builds on our previous work on forced migration to explore this question, and focuses on three groups of variables across two settings: violence; socio-econo-political opportunities; and transaction costs, both locally and neighboring countries. We develop hypotheses and then conduct statistical analyses of those hypotheses using data on a global sample of countries covering the years 1970-1995. We briefly discuss the implications of our findings for contingency planning and the debate about ‘economic refugees.’

Abstract: During the 1990s, the South became a major new destination for Mexican and other Latino settled immigration. This paper contends that as Mexican immigrants have moved in sizable numbers to atypical destinations, they have also mobilized social capital and funds of knowledge from the historical concentrations of Latino settlement (i.e. Los Angeles and Chicago) to new areas, such as the South. Using qualitative and descriptive quantitative data collected in Dalton, Georgia, a small city located in the southern Appalachia region, this article shows how previously accumulated social capital and funds of knowledge are facilitating settlement with collective and individual level consequences. At the community level, this access to social capital is compressing the timing of the migratory cycle, accelerating incorporation. At the individual level, one significant outcome is the rapid rise of ethnic entrepreneurship, which in turn fosters differentiation within the immigrant community.

Abstract: Although entrepreneurial success is often attributed to reciprocity in “ethnic resources” or “social capital,” this explanation does not directly address ethnic groups with marginal business-ownership, such as among Mexicans, or non-immigrant, “non-ethnic” business-ownership, such as among Whites. Instead of focusing on ethno-cultural differences, this presentation suggests that three forms of economic integration-market exchange, reciprocity, and redistribution–combine to facilitate entrepreneurship in a market economy. Relationships of exchange occur within a market economy in which a group is situated. Likewise, reciprocity, such as ethnic resources, or redistribution, such as government assistance, must also be situated within the context of the market when analyzing their impact on entrepreneurial success. Such a comprehensive and systematic perspective more fully explains ethnic differences in entrepreneurship. Using the 1990 CENSAS (long-form census data with tractlevel information) and the 1992 Characteristics of Business-Owners database, Valdez argues that in a capitalist economy, market exchange facilitates success while reciprocal and redistributive relationships compensate for market disadvantages, but will affect success only marginally.

Abstract: This presentation examines the effect of overarching institutional norms on judicial behavior in the United States Supreme Court and Federal Circuit Courts of Appeal in immigration cases. Law argues that distinct operational norms govern the different levels of the judiciary, causing the two courts to adopt divergent approaches to immigration cases. While the high court is mainly concerned with resolving grand questions of jurisprudence, the Circuit Courts of Appeals are more parochial in focus and attends to questions of procedural due process. Law attributes the difference in approaches taken by the two courts to their specific and dissimilar institutional contexts and concludes that these enduring structures better explain judicial behavior than such factors as the characteristics of individual judges, which is the focus of standard modes of analysis.

Abstract: What explains multilateral cooperation leading to the free movement of labor? I examine the ability of two theories of regime formation (structural and game-theoretic approaches) and of two theories of integration (supranationalism and intergovernmentalism) to account for such cooperation. Based on a review of attempts to promote cooperation at the regional and inter-regional levels, and on a more detailed analysis of two case studies (the EU and ECOWAS), I demonstrate that none of the four theories adequately explains how multilateral cooperation with regards to the free movement of labor emerges. I then offer an alternative model, which highlights bargaining between the countries of origin and those of destination. I assert that countries of origin are likely to support the free movement of labor, while countries of destination are likely to oppose it. Multilateral cooperation is achieved when the countries of destination agree to the free movement of labor, and in return, the countries of origin grant the former unrestricted entry into their markets, and/or accept their leadership status. This kind of cross-issue linkage mainly develops in regional integration schemes. I further explain the factors contributing to the durability of cooperation on the free movement of labor, and the paradoxical finding that the multilateral agreements most likely to emerge and survive are the ones that contribute the least to economic efficiency.